Speaking publicly for the first time since announcing his “inappropriate” relationship with a Hot Springs lawyer, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel on Tuesday said there won’t be any similar revelations during his campaign for governor.
McDaniel answered questions at a 30-minute news conference in the Wyndham Riverfront hotel in North Little Rock three weeks after admitting that he had an inappropriate relationship with lawyer Andrea Davis.
“I continue to hear that rumors are swirling about whether some other shoe will drop. There is no other shoe to drop. There are noother women,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel is the only Democrat who has announced plans to run for governor in 2014. He said Tuesday that he doesn’t plan to drop out of the race or step down as attorney general.
McDaniel married his second wife, Bobbi McDaniel, in 2009.
“This has been the most painful experience in my life that I can recall,” McDaniel said. “Whether I am governor or not, this will never happen again.”
News of the relationship first came from an Oct. 31 Garland County Circuit Court filing in a child-custody case between Davis andher ex-husband, Dr. Frederick N. Day III.
The allegations remained out of the headlines for about seven weeks.
“Sooner or later a member of the media was going to ask,” McDaniel said. He said he released a public statement shortly after being asked about the matter.
Davis, a Hot Springs lawyer, said in an e-mail to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Tuesday: “I am frustrated with the form, manner and content presented by Dustin.”
Davis told the business and politics website Talk Business that she is frustrated because she is ready to move past questions about the relationship.
“I understand that I face possible ramifications - ethically, morally and professionally - but every half-truth told only leads to another question/answer session,” she told the website.
McDaniel told the Democrat-Gazette later through a campaign staff member that he empathizes.
“I know Ms. Davis never wanted to be a public figure, and I regret that unwanted public attention is a consequence of my actions,” he said.
Davis told Talk Business that there are 500 text messages exchanged between her and McDaniel in 2011 and February 2012 that are in the hands of the state Crime Laboratory.
Law-enforcement officials are reviewing the text messages as part of their investigation into the Feb. 29 homicide of Maxwell Anderson in Garland County.
Anderson was shot and killed in Davis’ driveway. Police initially identified her brother, Matthew Davis, as the shooter. No arrests have been made, and no suspects have been named.
“There simply is not a point in coming forward and volunteering this information unless honest answers are provided. I am not going to comment about a lie with a mistruth,” she told the website. The texts “obviously will eventually be provided to the masses for review. I am not going through this again when they are released. Therefore, the press conference was immensely shortsighted, hence - disappointing.”
McDaniel said during the news conference that he doesn’t specifically remember the texts.
“I do not have a record of those texts on my personal phone, and no, I would not release them if I did,” he said.
McDaniel said he and Davis have been in each other’s presence less than half a dozen times since meeting during the 2010 attorney general campaign. He would not provide more details about what he called a “limited interaction” or how long it lasted, beyond saying that it occurred in 2011. He said he immediately regretted it.
“I was married, she was not. I was the one in the position of public trust. I allowed a lapse of character and judgment to hurt my family, my friends and my reputation,” McDaniel said. “I do not intend to get into details on something that is painful and hard enough for any marriage to endure.”
McDaniel stood alone Tuesday behind a lectern framed by the U.S. and Arkansas flags.Bobbi McDaniel was in the room as he spoke.
“This situation is entirely my fault, so I cannot ask her to stand up here simply for the purpose of easing my burden,” he said of his wife.
Video of the news conference is available online at www.arkansasonline.com/videos/livefeed.
McDaniel said that the last time he and Davis spoke was during a 20-minute phone call Aug. 17 related to a child-custody dispute with her ex-husband. That’s the same day Davis sent an e-mail to McDaniel stating “please help me.”
“She was treated in a very routine and professional manner. There was a brief phone call,” McDaniel said. “She was treated like any other citizen who would have presented [us] with a circuit court order directing us to take action.”
Asked by a reporter whether all Arkansans are able to get him on the phone whenthey call his office about their child-custody disputes, Mc-Daniel said Davis was treated like any other Arkansas lawyer who contacts his office.
“Arkansas’ legal community is actually a pretty small legal community, so, yes, lawyers call me directly all the time,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel said such contact is routine and common.
“Anybody who sent directly to me a circuit court order where a circuit judge is directing us to do something, we’re going to respond to the judge,” he said.
CODE OF CONDUCT
Since Davis and McDaniel met in 2010, Davis has represented clients in five cases when the attorney general’s office represented the state, McDaniel said.
“It had no impact on my job or the work done by the very competent and capable staff of the attorney general’s office,” he said. “My staff had no knowledge of my personal interaction with her, and it had no bearing on how our office handled cases involving her.”
Davis represents a group of parents in a federal lawsuit against the state over the Arkansas School Choice Act.
The attorney general’s office represented the state Department of Education in the school-choice case at the time the “inappropriate” interaction occurred. Assistant Attorney General Scott Richardson is the office’s lead attorney in that case.
McDaniel said Davis didn’t argue the case in a court hearing, and his office didn’t deal much with her by 2012. She is still listed as an attorney in the case, according to filings in the 8th Judicial District.
McDaniel said his and Davis’ actions did not violate the Arkansas Rules of Professional Conduct, which dictate attorney behavior.
The Rules of Professional Conduct state that disclosure of a personal interest with opposing counsel is required if there is a significant risk that representation of the client will be materially limited. The notified client has to specify in writing that the situation is acceptable.
The rules do not define “significant risk,” “materially limited” or who decides whether a relationship could cause problems.
Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct Executive Director Stark Ligon said by phone that court rules prohibit him from saying whether a complaint has been filed against a specific person.
In a July 13 letter to Assistant Attorney General Warren Readnour, Davis invoked Mc-Daniel’s name when seeking a time extension in a court case, saying McDaniel was familiar with her “moral fiber.”
At the time of Anderson’s shooting, Davis and the attorney general’s office were preparing to face off in court over an appeal of an Arkansas Veterinary Medical Examining Board decision to suspend a veterinarian.
In a March 7 letter, Andrea Davis asked Readnour for more time to file an appeal in the case, citing Anderson’s death.
“This is a very bad day for me, and I am asking for some humanity and understanding even though I am not going to judge you or be upset with your office, much less General McDaniel, should you say no,” Davis wrote.
McDaniel said he has not communicated with law enforcement officials about the homicide.
RECORDS AND WORKING PAPERS
On Dec. 21 McDaniel’s office released 35 pages of partially redacted travel, phone and e-mail records relating to his interaction with Davis.
He has not said when in 2011 the relationship took place, beyond saying “there was never any interaction of state business and this personal interaction.”
McDaniel’s office initially said the files were McDaniel’s “working papers” and as such would not be released under the state Freedom of Information Act because they were exempt.
In an e-mailed statement that accompanied the records, attorney general spokesman Aaron Sadler maintained that the records are still exempt under the law.
“We’ve given you everything that there is,” McDaniel said during Tuesday’s news conference. “Anything that is related to her was given to you in an unredacted manner.”
McDaniel said that nothing in the documents was redacted for political reasons.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/09/2013